The excuse for building this majestic little pavilion was to give a grandstand view of whatever went on in the enclosure in front of it. Suggestions range from the romantic (jousting) and the rough (bear-baiting) to the more prosaic (bowls). Evidence supports the latter, with a payment in 1632 for a ‘bowle alley house’. It was built by a mason, Richard Shepperd, but its design has been attributed to John Smythson, one of our first true architects and son of the great Robert. So, whatever its purpose, it is a building well worth preserving.

Swarkestone Hall was demolished by 1750. The pavilion survived, thanks to that most conserving of families, the Harpur Crewes of Calke, but it had long been a shell when we bought it. We re-roofed it and put back floors and windows, to recreate the room in which you live and sleep. The bathroom is in the top of one of the turrets, above the kitchen, and to reach it you must cross the open roof – an unlooked-for opportunity to study the sky at night.

Swarkestone, with its important bridge across the Trent, has seen great events: a battle for its control in the Civil War did great damage to the Hall; and in 1745 it was the point at which Bonnie Prince Charlie recognised the futility of his attempt on the English throne and turned his troops back towards Scotland, to meet their fate at Culloden. Today, it stands as a romantic vestige as the modern world goes on around it.

View our history sheet for this Landmark

Sleeps: 2